Where I Find Project Ideas
Posted by Cindy on February 5, 2010
Lots of people over time have asked where I find ideas for the project choices I give my children. At this point, most of the ideas are dreamed up in my head, but it hasn’t always been that way. Some of the books I use include:
Better Than Book Reports is book is full of great ideas for projects as they relate to literature. I’ve found the project ideas easily transferable to research/history/science topics as well. The following three are very similar to this one, but I’m finding that they are probably out-of-print. I’ve linked you to their webpages anyway since they can all still be purchased through Amazon new/used sellers.
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Student Product Development & Evaluation was sent to me as a review product. Although not quite as visual, there are lots of very thorough ideas – especially project ideas for older children and teens. A large list of project ideas is given, with about 40 of those ideas fleshed out for you with book lists, websites and possible rubrics. This is not my favorite of the books I use for ideas, but it has it’s place, especially for the upper school years.
Easy File Folder Reports is simple for mom and children. Each topic has reproducible pages where your child fills out the papers during their research and attaches them to a file folder. Usually, a small hands-on project is suggested for a 3-dimensional addition to the report.
I know you hear about the NaturExplorers units all the time, but I have purposely designed the writing and research activity ideas in the units to be project-based. In other words, with most of the writing and research suggestions, projects like creating file folder reports, dioramas, posters, charts, models and much more are part of the activities.
The following site is helpful, too.
More Ideas Than You’ll Ever Use for a Book Report
If you have any other resources for finding project ideas, please comment!
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